Sir John Davies. "Epigrammes." Ad Musam (I).

EPIGRAMMES
By Sir John Davies

AD MUSAM. (I)

Fly, merry Muse unto that merry towne,
Where thou maist playes, revels, and triumphs see ;
The house of Fame, and theater of renowne,
Where all good wits and spirits loue to be.
Fall in betweene their hands that loue and praise thee,¹
And be to them a laughter and a jest :
But as for them which scorning shall reproue thee,
Disdaine their wits, and thinke thine one² the best :
But if thou finde any so grose³ and dull,
That thinke I do to priuate taxing⁴ leane,
Bid him go hang, for he is but a gull,
And knows not what an Epigramme does meane ;
Which taxeth,⁵ under a peculiar name,⁶
A generall vice, which merits publick blame.

1 MS. “seeme to loue thee.” D.
2 Own. G.
3 Gross. G.
4 Blaming, censure. G.
5 MS. "carrieth." G.
6 Other editions "particular" : and so MS. G.

Raphael. Mount Parnassus. 1510-1. Detail.
Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Musems.

Text source:

Davies, Sir John. The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Vol II.
Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, Ed.
London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly, 1876. 7-8.

to Works of Sir John Davies